Taurus M66 trigger problem

I was out the other day with a friend, who recently purchased a Taurus M66 in 38/357 stainless. It's double action trigger was not that great. Single action had a problem, however.

What does it mean when you cock the gun, put enough pressure on the trigger to make the hammer fall, but it doesn't fall all the way! My friend is ham-fisted, and was unable to reproduce what I was doing, but I could consistently let off the trigger in single action and have it not fire the round. The hammer seemed like it was falling on a half cock notch or something. If you kept pulling the trigger, it would eventually fire from this position. Once or twice it didn't, but I might have lost track of which cylinder I was on, and might have advanced again without firing.

But the single action trigger which wasn't always a simple pull was definitely there, and a reproducible error. Now, I've only shot S&W revolvers, but I have never heard of a single action revolver trigger not firing completely once you pull it enough for the trigger to break.

My friend should get this looked at, right? (I really think he should sell it and save up for the S&W 686 he really wanted in the first place, but I digress...)

Pop the plate off of it and look for packing grease in the action. Clean it out if so. This is sometimes the case with Taurus revolvers, never get the packing grease cleaned out of 'em. Bought my two used. They shoot better than my Smith did.

Shrinkmd

April 9, 2010, 11:21 PM

Thanks, I will tell my friend to try that. He isn't the most mechanically inclined, and I don't want to mess up his new gun. I will suggest him blasting some brake cleaner into the action and see if he can dissolve any grease out. If not, is removing the side plate on the Taurus as problematic as on a S&W?

MCgunner

April 10, 2010, 09:43 AM

Well, if you can't do it on a Smith, it's a similar design except that it uses a transfer bar instead of a hammer block.